


Fatherless Children

by AugustStories



Series: Fatherless Children [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Aegon and Rhaenys Targaryen Live, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Arthur Dayne Lives, Brothers, Elia Martell Lives, House Targaryen, Lyanna Stark Lives, No Daenerys, Not Lyanna Friendly, Oswell Whent Lives, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 03:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25147681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustStories/pseuds/AugustStories
Summary: They were fatherless children but never indeed truly without a father.Rhaenys, Aegon and Jaehaerys grow up after the fall of their House.
Relationships: Aegon VI Targaryen & Oswell Whent, Arthur Dayne & Jon Snow, Elia Martell & Aegon VI Targaryen, Elia Martell & Jon Snow, Elia Martell/Oswell Whent, Elia Martell/Rhaegar Targaryen, Jon Snow & Aegon VI Targaryen, Jon Snow & Aegon VI Targaryen & Rhaenys Targaryen (Daughter of Elia), Jon Snow & Rhaenys Targaryen (Daughter of Elia), Lyanna Stark/Rhaegar Targaryen, Robert Baratheon/Lyanna Stark
Series: Fatherless Children [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1821748
Comments: 13
Kudos: 128





	Fatherless Children

They were fatherless children in a generation where that fact was nothing anymore that made you stand out.

They were fatherless children in a generation born slightly before, during or immediately after the Rebellion that had toppled the Targaryen dynasty from the Iron Throne.

So many men had died on the battlefield, thousands alone on the Trident, so many of them fathers, young fathers, fathers to be. A whole generation where so many children grew up without ever knowing their fathers, without ever even meeting them.

So what made them so special in a generation of fatherless children?

They were Targaryens. They were the Targaryen siblings, the only dragons in the main branch left of a destroyed royal House. The were the fatherless Targaryen children.

_Rhaegar Targaryen's children_.

Out of the three of them, only Rhaenys held memories of their father but that didn't mean that Aegon and Jaehaerys didn't know of him. They were fatherless children but they weren't without a father in their lives, and all of the people around them had known their sire and could tell their stories and share their memories.

Share _him_ with them.

\--

As the stories went, Princess Elia placed the infant Jaehaerys Sand – not even a fortnight old – into the crib of her sleeping Aegon and without either boy waking up, the older Aegon curled a hand around Jaehaerys' smaller one and held on as Rhaenys peaked over the side of the bed.

And in the front of the nursery in the Water Gardens, Princess Elia was framed by two knights who had only a fortnight ago still worn white, and all three of them knew that they had difficult years ahead of them.

\--

When they were together and a stranger looked at them, they would hardly consider them siblings, the three of them.

Dark skinned Rhaenys with the dark locks of hair, her mother's very image, right down to every feature.

Pale skinned Aegon with the silver-white Valyrian hair and purple eyes, who came so much after the blood of the men and women whose long rule had come to a bloody end.

Pale skinned Jaehaerys with the dark hair, his eyes those of his Northern mother, his features and height a blending mix of both sides of his blood.

There was nothing on the outside they had in common, nothing that formed a bond for all the world to see, and even less that made it obvious right away that they shared the same father. But it had never mattered to them at all, not for even a split moment had it bothered them that their looks might not throw them together.

They shared blood.

They shared a heritage.

They were the last living Targaryens in Westeros.

They were siblings, loving each other fiercely, so very protective of each other.

They grew up in the blessing that were the Water Gardens, surrounded by family and friends, by protectors from all sides as the King who had taken their once home kept on raging to see the very thing that connected them beyond a sibling bond spilt over the stairs of the Great Sept of Baelor.

They grew up while a king raged to see them hunted and murdered.

They grew up while Arthur Dayne, Oswell Whent, Princess Elia, Prince Oberyn and Lord Elion Gargalen didn't dare leave them out of their sight for the first three years.

They grew up happy, they grew up innocent while danger hung over their existence, something they never learned until much later.

Rhaenys, Aegon and Jaehaerys grew up together as fatherless children, and as peace was finally brokered between Dorne and the Iron Throne shortly before Aegon's fourth nameday, they also got to finally learn what it meant to be free children.

\--

Out of the three of them, Aegon and Jaehaerys were the closest, to absolutely no one's surprise in their greater family. Where Rhaenys remembered a life before Dorne still, where she found companions in the daughters of their uncle Oberyn, in Princess Arianne and the many other young girls having been sent to become companions to the future Princess of Dorne, the Water Gardens lacked in boys greatly back then.

There was Prince Quentyn and later little babe Prince Trystane but the boys only met them when they visited with their mother from Sunspear. There were some boys older than them but they weren't interested anymore in the games little boys wanted to play.

Aegon and Jaehaerys kept together, that one year between them not mattering anymore once Jaehaerys could walk, always together, always attached at the hip. What one wanted, the other wanted as well. What one learned, the other immediately tried to copy.

They were brothers, big and little, and even at a point where Jaehaerys had learned to toddle after a beaming Aegon, holding his big brother's hands, everyone had known that this bond was not something that anything could ever destroy.

\--

Rhaenys was the only one of them who remembered bits and pieces of Rhaegar Targaryen, Aegon and Jaehaerys could have never had that experience. As children, all three of them called Princess Elia 'Mama', and it wasn't until they were older that she told them the truth about everything. Jaehaerys wasn't her child but it had never bothered her, it hadn't mattered because as she had told them then they were siblings and she loved them all the same.

They never asked where Jaehaerys' mother was, not back then, not when they had still been children, and after some hesitation on his side and encouragement from her Jaehaerys had called Elia 'Mama' as well again.

Aegon and Jaehaerys both called a knight 'Papa'.

It just wasn't the same one.

And wasn't that the funny twist in it?

Different mothers had given birth to them, but the brothers had chosen different father figures when in truth one sire had made them brothers by blood.

For Aegon, it was Ser Oswell, the Kingsguard his mother had fallen in love with as her marriage to the Crown Prince had quickly revealed itself to remain a political one despite her best tries. Only a couple of years older than her, Ser Oswell had dared to return her feelings only after he had no longer been buried under a white cloak and hard oaths.

For Jaehaerys, it was Ser Arthur, the Kingsguard who had taken him from his mother's hands as the rebels had come riding for the watchtower she had been hidden within. Rhaegar Targaryen's best friend who had so vehemently argued for the survival of a child who had no blame to rest on his tiny shoulders. Jaehaerys' mother went with the rebels and Ser Arthur took the babe to meet his siblings, he brought him home.

\--

When Aegon was five and Jaehaerys had just turned four, Dorne celebrated the wedding of their beloved Princess Elia to the man she loved, the man who had fought to bring her back home. It would be the first time that the Targaryen children would be present at a formal event, the first time the greater Dornish public would get to see them.

Something that Aegon and Jaehaerys would neither understand nor be interested in, the whole affair was way too existing. A tourney was held in celebration, leading up to the wedding in the great sept in Sunspear. A sennight of celebrations was to follow.

Mummers from Essos had been invited to perform great shows, traders from all over Essos and the summer isles had arrived to present their work and people from all over Dorne had gotten together to be there when their Princess married a second time. And this time in her homeland, and to a man she loved, a man who had risked his life to save her and her children.

"What is that animal, Uncle Art?" Egg asked his uncle as they stopped at another show, people were dressed in really bright colors and Egg thought they looked a bit silly.

"That's a zebra, Egg," his uncle answered and shifted Jay up higher on his hip, holding him with one arm while the other hand held tightly onto Egg's hand. "It may look like a funny horse to you but it isn't one. They only live in Essos."

"So why is this one here and not with the other zebras?" Egg wanted to know and got up on his tiptoes to see more of what the mummers were doing. "Don't it miss them?"

"I believe, Egg, that these people want to show off their zebra, so that we can all see it and learn what it is like. Not everything can be read in a book and be perfectly understood," his uncle told him and then twitched when someone slapped hands upon his shoulders from behind. "Aren't you supposed to be greeting guests?"

Egg grinned when his Papa revealed himself from behind his uncle and he gladly stretched up arms to get as high up as Jay was, too. Oswell swept him up onto his shoulders even and laughed, "it was Elia who was done for the day. And I think we've greeted about every cousin by now anyway. What are you doing here, huh? Looking at the mummers?"

"That's a zebra, Papa."

"I see, and what do you know about zebras, Egg?"

"They live in Essos." Egg answered and then had to stop because he didn't know anything else, they were black and white but everyone could see that. "I don't know more."

"Why don't you go then and ask one of the mummers to tell you more about the zebra?" His Papa offered and Egg wriggled to be let down, Jay immediately doing the same with uncle Art. "Hold onto your brother's hand, Egg. And we're right here if there are any problems."

And as the brothers scrambled off to get closer to the little stage, they wouldn't see how Oswell and Arthur took a deep breath to steady their nerves. It had been the first time they had let go of the boys in a crowd of strangers.

\--

"That's unfair!"

"No, it's not! You're younger than me!"

"I fight better than you!"

"Do not!"

"Is there a reason you're not interfering?" Elia wondered quietly when she came to join him on top of the stairs leading down to the terrace at the back of their wing of the palace. Oswell chuckled and wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders, drawing her closer, off to the right, in the little alcove she so loved, Rhaenys was drawing, completely ignoring her squabbling brothers.

"Where would the fun be in that," he mentioned and watched Jay go off on another tangent over why he had just as much a right to join the squire rounds at the tourney for Arianne's nameday as his older brother.

"You know when Arthur left to help his brother deal with the new Vulture king he surely didn't want you to use the boys for your personal entertainment." Elia chastised him a little but Oswell shrugged with a grin when Aegon put his hands to his hip, an Elia gesture if there had ever been one. "I know you're bored." Elia drew his full attention onto her when she tapped his chin, making him look at her, "I also know that you feel left out, that you wanted to ride out with Arthur and Oberyn."

"My love, I know that I can't do it anymore," he assured her, he had long since accepted his limitations now, his injuries and the consequences of them had all been worth it because he had managed to save Elia, Rhaenys and Aegon. "I am happy here. And I'm not bored, I have a great joy in watching the boys pretend I will let either of them join the squire rounds."

Elia began laughing and it was still pure music to his ears, even the boys stopped their arguing and looked up at them, faces lighting up in joy.

\--

"Rhae? Can I come in?"

Rhaenys didn't look up from where she had buried her face in the pillows on her bed, she kept on pretending like the world around her didn't exist. Unfortunately, brothers had a tendency to read no reaction as acceptance and hence Jay stepped into her room and closed the door behind himself.

"You know, Aegon didn't mean what he said, he was just..."

"Angry?" Rhaenys interrupted her youngest brother and rolled herself onto her back, staring up at the ceiling. "Misunderstood? Reckless? Being an idiot? You know, Jay, apologizing for Egg is not something you should start doing. He's his own person and he is very much capable of standing up for the bullshit he is letting his mouth escape."

"I wanted to say scared."

Rhaenys stopped in her ranting and mouthing insults at the poor ceiling in order to turn her head and frown at her little brother who wasn't so little anymore. To her personal despair, both her brothers took their height from their sire's bloodline while she herself came after her mother's. Jay was three years younger than her but had been taller than her for over a year already. To a girl of only 12 it was not the greatest experience.

"Why would Egg be scared? Willas Tyrell is a descent young man. If someone as paranoid as uncle Oberyn holds that opinion over someone, it should be true." Rhaenys spoke while sitting up and then patting a space next to her. Jay took the invitation and sat down, and now where she looked a little closer and with a clearer head at her littlest brother, she could see that Jay didn't look that unaffected either.

What was going on?

"You know," Jay began and he was quiet and wouldn't fully look her in the eyes, "I guess Egg and I, we never really thought about it before. That one day, you're going to leave."

"Going to leave?" Rhaenys asked in confusion and reached out to tip up her brother's chin so he would finally look her in the eyes, "going to leave where?" Jay breathed out deep and then still mumbled his words so quietly that Rhaenys barely understood a word.

"Wherever your husband lives?"

Oh.

"Jay, I'm two and ten, I won't be marrying for a while yet," Rhaenys offered in comfort because yes, she wanted to marry, she wanted a husband and a family of her own, she wanted that life of stability but she didn't want to be a child bride. "And there is nothing to worry about, you know that. Between Ma, Pa, grandfather and our uncles, there is no chance that my future husband will not be a decent man. Whoever he will turn out to be, he will not hurt me or treat me like our father in the end treated our Ma."

"I know that," Jay told her and he looked like the little boy he still was then, so uncommon with him in recent moons, he always seemed older than he was. Uncle Arthur had said that their father had been the same. "Egg knows that, too. No one will hurt you but you're still going to leave one day, start a family of your own. I guess, Egg is scared you'll forget about us."

'And I am, too.'

But that was left unsaid.

Rhaenys smiled, her heart squeezing a bit over not having realized what her uncle's stories about the Reach and his visit to Highgarden might have caused in her little brothers. Willas Tyrell was a decent man but there was no way she was ever going to be able to marry him, the Crown wouldn't allow a Targaryen Princess to marry the future Warden of the South. And Rhaenys wasn't so sure she could ever be happy in the Reach anyway.

"My little brothers are both idiots," she began and Jay scowled at her as she shifted forward to frame his face with both hands, "absolute idiots if they think that I'll ever be capable of forgetting them. You'll always be my brothers, and I'll always love you." She grinned and looked over Jay's shoulder towards the no longer fully closed door, "even the one lurking behind doorframes." Aegon revealed himself with a step forward and pushed the door further open. "I might leave one day, go to a new home, get a family of my own but I'll always come back to you. I won't forget where I came from. I won't forget you."

\--

Aegon opened the door without knocking and ignored the muffled protests that his sister made behind him, the palace was still wide awake for the most part. Maegor's arrival had been cause for a celebration of course and the surprise addition of his son and daughter had only prompted Uncle Oberyn to make it grander.

No one really cared what the stupid Queen was thinking and as far as Aegon was concerned his grandfather should have sent her home instead of just back to Sunspear. There was nothing for this woman here.

The room he stepped into was darkened by the thick curtains that had been pulled in front of the many windows, the sea breeze was still floating in and taking away the heat of the day but the figure curled up on top of the covers on the canopy bed took no notice. Aegon sighed and let Rhaenys close the door as he took long strides over to his brother's bed and crawled in behind Jay.

"I'm not in the mood for talking," Jay mumbled into his pillow but Aegon ignored him, shifting closer and throwing an arm around his little brother. Jay sighed but also moved a hand to clutch onto Aegon's wrist. "I still don't want to talk."

"You don't have to talk," Rhaenys insisted and set Balerion down upon the foot of the bed before she gathered her skirts and climbed up as well, sitting down crosslegged on Jay's other side. "We can talk, you can listen," she decided and her hand began to stroke through Jay's black curls.

When Aegon had first heard that the Queen was to visit Sunspear and the Water Gardens, he had been so angry. He had tried for weeks to convince his mother to let him take Jay and go to Starfall for a while or go and see how cousin Quentyn was faring with the Yronwoods. He hadn't wanted Jay anywhere near that woman who had abandoned him, who had broken their family.

His mother hadn't agreed, had told him that Jay needed to make his own decisions and that he wanted to stay and continue as normal despite the royal visit. Pa would have agreed, so Aegon should have gone to him first, no one ever brought up the topic of Lyanna Stark with either Aegon's Pa or his uncle Arthur, both of them had lost so much because of her.

Uncle Arthur had lost his best friend, lost a reputation and a white cloak.

And Aegon's Pa?

Aegon's Pa would never ride again, he would never sit upon a horse again and ride off to protect Dorne. He would never truly fight again.

And here they were now, uncle Arthur was quiet and had retired before anyone else at the feast, Aegon's Pa was angry and his mother was worried. Lord Maegor was abashed over the Queen's behavior, Uncle Oberyn was in his cups. And Jay had stolen himself away as the dancing had begun, stolen himself away into his darkened room.

Stupid Queen.

Should have staid with her murderous husband in the bloody capital.

There was nothing for her here, and Aegon didn't understand what she thought she could have found. Had she truly been expecting Jay to forgive and forget and jump into her arms to play merry family? How stupid was she?

"I'm always as old now as she was when father crowned her," Jay interrupted Rhaenys' story about some of Arianne's and Tyene's plotting against the Darkstar and Rhaenys immediately went silent, Aegon only tightened his hold on his brother, watching the back of his head. "When we first heard about what had happened, in Harrenhal and later on, I always told myself that she was a child. She was only a child. But now..."

"Now, you're her age and you realize that she should have known what she was doing?" Aegon tested the waters and Jay nodded, glancing over to where Balerion had stretched out across his legs.

"She should have known," Jay repeated his words and he sounded hurt, "she wasn't a child anymore, she should have known. She ran away with a married man, a man who was a father, who was about to become a father again. She knew all of that and still chose to do it. If I can understand the consequences of that, so could she, but she ignored it all."

"She wasn't alone in doing it though," Rhaenys pointed out and her hand switched over to Aegon's hair as well, "father was a part of it as well."

"Yeah," Jay agreed but also turned so he could look at both of them, "but father is dead, he paid the ultimate price for his mistakes, didn't he?" Neither of them had something to say against that. "But what did she get for her mistakes? She ran away with a married man, she brought an innocent woman and her two children into grave danger, people died because of her decisions and they awarded her a crown. She became Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Oswell nearly gave his life so he could free Ma and you two. Uncle Arthur was left behind at a tower in the bloody desert with a goat and a newborn babe. By Lyanna Stark and those men. She abandoned me," and then there were the tears, "she left me behind, she didn't care if I lived or died. So did she care at any time? About father? About Ma and you? She made so many stupid mistakes and they gave her a crown."

"You think she didn't get the punishment she should have been given?" Rhaenys wanted to know and Jay angrily wiped away some tears.

"Father died. Lord Stark and his heir died. So many knights died in the war. Ma's uncle and half the Kingsguard. Our grandmother," Jay whispered and Rhaenys and Aegon both briefly closed their eyes as well, "our uncle, our aunt not even born. All of them died. And her punishment was a crown, a title, a happy marriage and more children? Her only punishment was to wipe away her past? It isn't fair. I don't want to see her anymore."

"You won't have to," Aegon promised like a kneejerk reaction and though Rhaenys sent him a look, he didn't go back on it. If Jay never wanted to see that woman again, he would make it happen. "She's not your family, she never has been. She may have given birth to you but she left. Ma, Pa and Arthur raised you. We're your family, we're the only family you'll ever need."

"Can you stay tonight?" Jay wanted to know in response and Aegon didn't have anything else planned anyway, "I know we haven't done this in a long time and we're not little children anymore but I just... I don't wanna be alone tonight."

"Of course we'll stay here tonight," Rhaenys gave in because she would have previously been the one to protest, insisting that she needed her sleep and not two idiots keeping her awake all night long. "I'm just gonna get changed and tell Ma so she doesn't worry. Be right back."

Rhaenys skipped out of Jay's room but Aegon didn't move away, especially not when Jay turned around and buried his face against Aegon's chest.

"I never want to see her again," Jay said quietly when they were alone and Aegon tightened his hold on him, "but I don't hate her. Isn't that strange?"

"No," Aegon reassured him and thought back to the many conversations he had had with his mother after they had learned the truth about their family. "No, it isn't strange. Father made mistakes, too, and we don't hate him. Ma doesn't hate father, despite what he did to her, did to us. Don't feel bad for what you feel because of her. Grandfather sent her away now, she won't be back unless you change your mind."

"I won't."

"Alright, so we focus then on planning out what we can do with Maegor, Morena and Aegor in the next days," Aegon proposed and Jay nodded, sniffling away his last tears. "One day it won't hurt anymore."

\--

He grunted when the older boy threw an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, probably just so able to refrain from messing up his hair again. Big brothers could suck sometimes.

"Are you ready?" Aegon wanted to know and Jay grinned, watching the sun dip into the horizon, nothing before them but endless sea. Dorne at their backs, everything they had ever known so far laid behind them. It scared Jay in some way, that there was no Pa or Ma or uncle to go to if something didn't work out, they would only have each other for the first moons until they met up with Jay's Pa in Lys.

But as scary as it might look like, it was also wildly exciting.

"I'm ready," he answered his brother and leaned against Aegon's side, after meeting up with his Pa and staying with the Rogares for a while, they would travel together to Tyrosh for Rhaenys' wedding. Afterwards, the plans were blank, everything was possible. Aegon and him wanted to live, they wanted to see the world and experience everything there was. They wanted to do what their father had never been able to, be free, be young, be reckless.

They wanted to vanish into a crowd and be no one.

Dive into a world where they would be just two brothers and not the Targaryen brothers recognized by every man, woman and child. They wanted to be in a place where their future could be anything they wanted it to be, go back to the very roots of their bloodline, discover the secrets that Old Valyria had still left behind in the world, travel East to see what they never had.

"I am so ready."

"Yeah, me, too."

\--

They had been fatherless children but they had never in fact been without fathers in their lives, never been without a mother to love them unconditionally.

They had grown up happy, surrounded by family and friends, grown up to become exactly who they wanted to be, their choices respected, their dreams encouraged and supported.

They had been fatherless children but together they had formed a bond that could never be broken.

Only Rhaenys would return to Westeros from time to time as she grew older and saw her own family grow around herself. Aegon and Jon never felt the same wish to return to the lands that had caused their family so much misery, and they would never set a foot again upon the shores of the kingdoms where they had been born.

They lived their lives free and happy, with love, with laughter, with family and friends.

There was no fire and blood, there was no winter to come.

Only the sun, shining down upon their lives and shining from their happy eyes.

**The End.**


End file.
